Recipe for Disaster
by somewhereinthedreams
Summary: Paige decides to cook Mike a romantic dinner to celebrate. Things don't go as planned. Set Post-Season 1.


**A/N: As much as I love how messy things are with Pike right now, I still find it easier to set fluff after Season 1. I'm loving Season 3 so far :)**

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Paige nervously eyed the kitchen as Mike finished his salad, just waiting for the smoke detector to go off.

Mike reached for another slice of bread and dipped it in some olive oil, before taking a bite. "This is great," Mike said.

Relaxing a little, Paige swiped the piece of bread from Mike's hand and popped it in her mouth. "This is all okay?" If organizing romantic dinners for two weren't her thing. _Cooking_ a romantic dinner for two was definitely not her thing. But so far, so good.

Mike reached across the table for her hand and nodded, "More than okay."

Paige breathed a sigh of relief, she wanted everything about tonight to be perfect. The Bello case was officially closed and Mike got the commendation from the FBI he should've gotten weeks ago. Last night, everyone went out for drinks to celebrate, but she wanted to do something special for him. Things were still relatively new between them and they were still figuring things out, but she was falling fast for Mike.

She convinced, _blackmailed,_ Jakes to get everyone out of the house, using a video of him singing Disney songs while cleaning as leverage. Charlie helped her plan a menu and even showed her how to make everything a few days before when Mike was at some all-day training. She even went through another practice run yesterday. Charlie had offered to make dinner, but Paige wanted to do it herself. She set the dining room table, using a tablecloth Charlie got from her grandmother. It had lace on it and everything. Candles, fresh flowers, the whole nine yards. She was wearing a black lace halter dress and by the way Mike couldn't take his eyes off her, she definitely made the right decision to go shopping earlier that week.

The oven timer went off and Paige jumped up, "The risotto's done. You like asparagus, right?" Paige asked, slightly panicked. What if Mike didn't like asparagus? She had seen him eat it before, but what if he just ate it when it was there. She had never seen him order it before now that she thought about it.

Mike nodded, "It smells good." Paige hurriedly walked towards the kitchen and he stopped her, "You smell good," Mike murmured, circling his arm around her waist, before reaching for her hand and kissing her wrist.

"Stop trying to distract me, Charlie said I have to take it out of the oven right away or it'll burn." Paige quickly kissed Mike and went into the kitchen. She turned off the oven and oven timer. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed an oven mitt to pull out dinner.

Paige frowned as she set the risotto on the counter. This wasn't how it looked when Charlie helped her make it. Paige poked at it with a spoon, wondering how the edges could be slightly burned and mushy at the same time.

Her shoulders fell when she realized it was ruined. She probably should've taken Charlie up on her offer to make dinner, because there was no way she could serve this to Mike. Paige spent all afternoon in the kitchen, double and triple checking the recipe. She even went to the farmer's market in the morning so everything would be fresh. Paige prepped everything in advance so when it was time to start cooking, she wouldn't have to chop and measure while cooking. She learned the difference between a shallot and an onion. She had never even heard of a shallot until a few days ago.

Maybe she could throw something else together, glancing around the kitchen. Who was she kidding? She cooked this twice under Charlie's watchful eye and the one time she made it on her own it was a disaster. There was no way she could just throw something together that wasn't cold cereal. There might be some leftover from yesterday, she was pretty sure Johnny hadn't eaten it all. But she remembered telling him to get it out of the house so it would be a surprise for Mike. The last thing she wanted was for him to sample it as a late night snack _before_ their dinner.

Paige must've stood there staring at her cooking disaster for a while, because Mike made his way to the kitchen.

"Hey," Mike quietly said, leaning up against the other side of the kitchen island.

Paige looked up at him and forced a smile on her face. "I - I'm not sure what happened."

Mike looked down and nodded, "It'll be fine," he insisted. "Just because it doesn't look - like the picture in the cookbook, it doesn't mean it won't taste good. It smells really good."

"I don't know. Maybe we should order a pizza or something."

Mike grabbed the oven mitt so he could carry dinner to the table and Paige was left with no choice but to follow him. She grabbed the parmesan cheese she grated earlier, hoping that would somehow make it better. At least it wouldn't make it worse.

Mike pushed in her chair and reassuringly squeezed her shoulders before sitting down next to her.

Paige sprinkled some parmesan cheese on top, before dumping all of it into the dish. She reached for the serving spoon with a sense of dread, deciding to serve them from the middle because it looked the most edible. She knew she was supposed to stir this, but she didn't want to mix the edges with the middle. Mike busied himself refilling their wine glasses while she served them.

Before she could offer a disclaimer, Mike took a bite without a hint of hesitation. "It's good."

"Yeah?" Paige asked, surprised.

Mike nodded and took another bite, "It's cheesy. You can really taste the asparagus."

Paige cautiously examined her forkful of risotto before taking a bite. "This is horrible," Paige said, throwing her fork down. How in the world did the rice end up undercooked, burned and mushy at the same time? This night was quickly turning into a disaster.

"It's not that bad," Mike insisted, picking up another forkful.

"Please stop eating that, I don't want to have to call poison control." She appreciated the gesture, she really did. Mike was just so _Mike_. Who else would keep eating this trainwreck of a meal? Paige blinked back tears, she wasn't sure why she was upset. It wasn't that big of a deal. She couldn't cook. Mike knew that. "I should've taken you out to dinner to celebrate or ordered in." This was a dumb idea. Paige leaned over the table, blowing out the candles. She started clearing the table, but Mike grabbed her wrist.

"Come here." Mike tugged on her hand, pulling Paige onto his lap. He lightly stroked her jaw before kissing her. "I love that you did all of this for me. For us." She looked adorable when she was pouting, but he hated that she was beating herself up over dinner. Paige had been really excited about planning their date tonight. He had actually been a little surprised when she suggested it to him, because she once told him that romantic gestures were his department. But Paige insisted she wanted to do something special to celebrate his commendation and said she'd plan everything. She wrote out an invitation for him on a notecard and left it on his pillow. She even made menus for tonight.

He had to admit, he was a little concerned when Paige said she was cooking dinner for him, but she insisted she had everything under control. He had been kicked out of the kitchen at least once this week because she had been cooking. He would never tell her, but he had expected at least a kitchen fire when she told him she was making dinner. So what if she messed up dinner. All that mattered to him was she wanted to cook for him.

Paige doing something out of her comfort zone _for him_ meant the world to him. But what really stood out to him was that Paige didn't seem fazed by their roommates teasing her about being so domestic. Johnny wanted to know when they were getting married and if she wanted a blender for a wedding gift since she was cooking now. She took all the teasing in stride and didn't seem to mind everyone calling her his girlfriend, despite her initial hesitation about labeling their relationship.

"Thank you," Mike whispered, trailing kisses along her neck as he tried to cheer her up.

Paige let out a frustrated sigh, "I wanted tonight to be perfect. I wanted to show you how how proud I am of you. But I - "

"You did. I don't need everything to be perfect, I just need you," Mike sincerely said, continuing to softly kiss her neck, smiling once he finally felt her relax in his arms.

"Yeah?" Paige asked, turning to face him. Mike nodded and she framed his face in her hands, kissing him until they were both breathless. "Dinner's a disaster - "

"The salad was really good."

"That's because everything was raw."

Mike lightly pressed his lips against hers. "Cooking's overrated, that's what takeout is for."

"I'm the worst girlfriend. I can't even make you dinner without screwing up."

Mike shook his head, "You're kind of an awesome girlfriend," Mike insisted. As long as she didn't try to get too domestic. "You don't get mad at me when I steal your yogurt and you always make sure to leave me a spoon hidden, even when you have a heroin case. Last week, you went running with me and you hate running in the morning." Paige probably wouldn't admit it, but he knew she went running with him just so they could spend some time together. Their schedules had been crazy and they had barely seen each other. So when he told Paige he was going running at 6am, she surprised him by saying she'd join him. "When I was sick last month, you took care of me." He could only run on no sleep for so long before it caught up with him, and his body gave out and he had been home for a few days. Paige cleared her schedule after he didn't shake it off after the first day. They spent most of the day watching movies, although he slept through most of them. She spent most of the day doing paperwork, but she had been nearby just in case he needed something. "You bought us tickets for a band you don't like because I do, and everything you did for tonight." There were so many things that Paige did to show him how much she cared. He didn't care if dinner was burned or undercooked or inedible.

Paige's smiled slightly as she took in his words. "You know, we have the whole house to ourselves. Everyone went to dinner and then they're going to the movies. Charlie said she's going to try to convince them to go for drinks too."

"The whole house all to ourselves for most of the night? That's amazing." Considering that they lived with four other people, it was nearly impossible to have any privacy in this house, despite all of the space.

Paige nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck as she straddled his lap, "We should skip dinner, go straight to dessert," Paige murmured as Mike sought out the zipper on her dress.

"Sounds good to me," Mike said, pulling her closer so he could sweep everything off the table.

"Charlie's going to kill us," Paige said, taking in the pile of plates and food now scattered on the floor. She cringed when she thought of the stains on Charlie's grandmother's tablecloth. She was probably going to have to get it dry cleaned.

"I'll clean it up later. You cooked, I'm in charge of dishes." Lifting her slightly, Mike gently placed her on the edge of the table. Her legs parted slightly as he brushed his hands up her thighs and started pushing her dress up to get it out of the way.

Wanting to speed things along, Paige impatiently grabbed his shirt, pulling him closer as she laid down and pulled him on top of her as she scooted back on the table. "Much later."

THE END


End file.
